Kathleen Hill: Ramen, cheese and barbecue news from around the Valley

Ramen Nights to return to Suite D Starting in November, Sondra Bernstein will again offer her Ramen Nights on Wednesdays at her Suite D on Schellville Road.|

Ramen Nights to return to Suite D

Starting in November, Sondra Bernstein will again offer her Ramen Nights on Wednesdays at her Suite D on Schellville Road. Then on Thursdays in November, her Fig Rig will show up around the Valley serving ramen as well. Always a great deal and slurpy good.

Incidentally, La Salette ranked ninth and the girl & the fig placed 10th in SF Eater's 'Essential Restaurants in Sonoma County.' All but one of those ahead of them on the list are in Petaluma. Juanita Juanita came in 11th.

France bans plastic utensils and more

France just became the first country to ban plastic plates, silverware and cups by 2020 or any other year. Having spent many weeks in France in the last couple of years, I don't remember ever using or seeing a plastic plate, utensil or cup. Banning plastics of this sort saves petroleum.

Cochon Volant changes hours

Rob Larman is changing his Cochon Volant hours to offer possibly exciting dinners and other dining opportunities. And maybe go fishing more often.

Starting next week Larman will serve his regular smokehouse and barbecue menu Friday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The rest of the days he will offer the restaurant for other chefs' pop-up dinners, and even craft beer dinners, which certainly suggests new tastes might be available in Sonoma Valley. 18350 Sonoma Highway. 509-5480. Full menu at Cochonvolantbbq.com.

Harvest Fair awards announced

J. Rickards Winery of Cloverdale and Russian River Vineyards of Forestville won top honors for their whites and reds respectively, with the J. Rickards 2015 Croft Vineyard, Alexander Valley Sauvignon Blanc, at $22, and the Russian River Vineyards 2014 Horse Ridge Vineyard, Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, at $65. Sonoma Valley's Gloria Ferrer Caves & Vineyards, the large sparkling wine house founded by the Ferrer family of Spain, snagged the specialty wine award with its Gloria Ferrer 2007 Royal Cuvee Carneros Sparkling Wine at $39.

Imagery Estate Winery, Kenwood Vineyards and Mayo Family Winery all won two Best of Class awards for their wines in. Others similarly awarded were Estate 1856, de Lorimer, Stephen & Walker, and Trentadue. The entire list of winners is at harvestfair.org.

Fantasy party on Moon Mountain for SVMA

Attorneys Valerie Pistole (also champion body builder and dancer) and Jeff Walter will host one of Sonoma Valley Museum of Art's Great Places Great Spaces cocktail party fundraisers Saturday, Oct. 1 at their home on Moon Mountain featuring a new interior and spectacular views.

Chef Mike Emmanuel of Stone Edge Winery will serve appetizers as they walk through the gardens designed by Penny Magrane. Watch out for the magician sneaking up on you. $125. 6 p.m.

Tickets and address by calling Ron Richards at 939-7862, ext. 14 or at svma.org.

SOS Tea to help Sonoma's homeless and hungry

Yes, we do have homeless and hungry people in Sonoma Valley, whether we want to acknowledge it or not. And most of them are longtime Sonoma Valley residents down on their luck.

Sonoma Overnight Support will hold an Afternoon Tea on Saturday, Oct. 8 to raise funds to continue to give shelter and food to our homeless population. For the event at Burlingame Hall, the Brown Baggers will again make the tea sandwiches, Sonoma Market will donate cannoli and fruit custard tarts, Andrea Koweek of Crisp Bake Shop will make scones with ginger, figs, walnuts and blueberries, Sunny Bajwa of the Basque will make cookies, and Anne McKibben of the soon to open CocoaPlanet will offer chocolates.

Among the auction items will be a class given by Ramekins' Chef Ambassador Lisa Lavagetto on making gnocchi at the home of local chef Kay Austin.

Supervisor Susan Gorin will emcee and replace me as hat judge since I will have the honor of giving a presentation at the Union Square Williams-Sonoma on the history of the store and 1950s kitchen utensils and recipes in honor of the chain's 60th anniversary and what would be founder Chuck Williams' 104th birthday. Please help SOS. Tickets are $30 and are available at sonomaovernightsupport.org.

Vintage Festival leftovers

Tougher-than-most-of-us Susan Scarborough got herself gussied up and decorated Robert Arnold's Chandelle Winery and won the first place trophy for table design. Congratulations on a terrific recovery, Susan.

One major addition to the Friday night Gala was a lighted drone hovering overhead through the entire party. Whose was it and what were they doing?

Meanwhile, Fred Johnson and Elizabeth Takeuchi-Krist held a Grand Opening of their Starling Bar Saturday night, a few months after they opened. Replacing the Blue Moon Saloon, and Pasali's Card Room before that, Starling Bar was packed when we got there, as it throbbed to the tunes of Three on A Match featuring Smokin' Joe Herschaft on vocals and harmonica.

In the crowd was a proud Gary Saperstein saying that Johnson was his first hire when Sondra Bernstein first opened the girl & the fig.

The same day Sonoma Springs Brewing Co. held an Oktoberfest and released its 2016 Divine Harvest Dunkelweissbier and Roggenbier Bavarian Rye, all accompanied by Divewalk Café's German Bratwurst, potato salad and sauerkraut.

Jenkins' Intermittent Lemon Festival

Gayle and Tom Jenkins celebrated his brother Jack's 80-something birthday with two nights of their 'Third Intermittent Sonoma Lemon Festival' featuring crooner Jack's and his daughter Letitia's terrific singing from a Jenkins home balcony.

Tom Jenkins cooked all the food for a total of 120 guests, a miraculous feat for any individual. Dinner started with mixed greens with pecans, goat cheese and dried cranberries; lemon-infused fregola sarda with corn; baby carrots, roasted root vegetables, oven-baked chicken piccata with preserved lemons; and lemon anise and walnut biscotti and Meyer lemon cheesecake, followed by Tom's homemade Limoncello. Some guests even left with little boxes of Lemonhead candy.

The Jenkins recently sold their Sonoma's Best deli, café and wine shop, which turned into a blessing for last weekend's guests. Each dinner table got to decide what four bottles they wanted from the printed wine list, with several people 'tasting' them all. Guests enjoyed seeing a video made by Gayle Jenkins which they submitted to Wine Spectator for its 10th annual video competition. Tom Jenkins said, 'Regrettably ours was not one of the 10 finalists, though Phil Coturri's video was one of the 10 finalists.'

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